1st Trimester, what does it feel like?

First trimester includes almost the first three months (12 weeks) of pregnancy. During the first trimester the mother might not look pregnant, but there are a lot of changes going on inside the mothers body and the embryo, both.

The changes taking place inside the mother’s body during the first trimester are not vague or hidden. Although they might not be visible directly to others, the mother can feel them very well and they have a great impact on her daily life.

As soon as the embryo starts developing, there is a complete shift in hormonal balance in the female body. The pregnancy hormones take over from the monthly cycle ones and thus the secondary sexual characters of the body experience several changes too under the influence of those hormones.

During the first trimester of pregnancy, the zygote changes to embryo and implants into the wall of uterus. By the end of the first trimester the baby has developed parts of limbs, various organs and body systems. In fact baby starts to move by the end of eight week! So it’s a huge set of changes and development that takes place during the first trimester.

What should one expect during first trimester?

A pregnant woman should be ready to feel a lot of physical and psychological changes during the first trimester of the pregnancy. Some of them are:

Feeling tired

Being pregnant and supporting a fast developing embryo is an exhaustive task. Your body gets tired due to the internal metabolism and usage of resources. It’s normal to feel tired during the first trimester. So have a good diet and take good rest to help your body coupe with the exhaustive condition!

Morning sickness

During the first few months of pregnancy, while the mother’s body is trying to adjust to the changes occurring in the body, it’s normal to have a feeling of morning sickness.

Morning sickness is the feeling of nausea (with vomiting sometimes). It’s good idea to keep your diet up and fill your empty stomach at that time to counter nausea. But if the nausea is associated with other symptoms like fever etc, its important to get that diagnosed by the physician.

Frequent urge to urinate

The uterus grows and expands in all directions, specially upwards as the embryo grows, resulting in pressure on the adjacent organs, including urinary bladder. Ultimately the storage capacity of the bladder reduces due to smaller space for it to expand and store the urine formed by kidneys. This will result in more frequent urge to urinate. It’s perfectly normal as the pregnancy progresses and the pregnant women might feel “leak” of urine with pressure on her belly during sneezing or coughing even during later stages of pregnancy.

Lower abdomen expands

Obviously as the baby grows so does the uterus, and thus the lower part of abdomen and pelvis expands by the end of first trimester.

Emotional disturbances

There are a lot of hormonal changes going on inside the mother’s body during pregnancy. Combine that with exhaustion and fatigues, it results in frequent mode changes and lack of concentration.

Constipation

Constipation is normal as the pregnancy progresses due to the pressure and changes in the abdominal cavity. Care should be taken to avoid constipation as much as possible to avoid any complications.

Changes in breasts

Again, due to the change in hormones in the female, the secondary sexual characters get affected and so does the breasts. They get tender and swollen with feel fuller in the later stages of pregnancy as they’re being prepared for breast feeding the developing child.